CNN: Pushback grows against insurance industry report
They're angry and fighting back with full force. The White House, Democrats and health care experts are blasting a new insurance industry trade report that finds that health insurance premiums for the typical American family would increase by $4,000 by 2019 under a key Senate overhaul plan.

CNN: Pawlenty rolls out new health care proposals
As Democrats in Washington work to push health care reform through the Senate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty rolled out a series of new health care initiatives on Tuesday that he plans to introduce during next year's legislative session.

Washington Post: The Pastor Who Has Obama's Attention
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is long gone; Rick Warren, just an Inauguration Day memory. The hordes of ministers around town who were hoping they'd somehow wind up with the first family in their pews have (mostly) given up.

New York Times: Biden No Longer a Lone Voice on Afghanistan
A few hours after getting off a plane from America’s war zones, Joseph R. Biden Jr. slipped into a chair, shook off his jet lag and reflected on what he had seen. The situation in Iraq, he said, was much improved. In Pakistan, he said he saw encouraging signs.

CNNMoney: U.S. wants AIG bonuses curtailed
The Treasury Department, after missing an opportunity to rein in controversial bonuses to AIG employees last year, is now pressing the bailed out insurer to reduce a $198 million bonus pool, according to an overseer's report released Tuesday.

Los Angeles Times: Support in Senate for cellphone driving ban
Amid calls from the Obama administration and traffic safety advocates to ban texting and talking on hand-held cellphones while driving, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) has thrown his support behind the effort - a sign that the Senate could pass such legislation this year.

CNN: From Congressman to Survivorman
This past summer, Rep. Jeff Flake went into the wild. After two years of planning, the Arizona Republican spent a week on a remote, uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, eating coconuts and fish he caught with a spear, purifying his own water, sleeping in a hammock on the beach, and writing daily in his journal.

New York Times: Still on the Job, but Making Only Half as Much
The dark blue captain’s hat, with its golden oak-leaf clusters, sits atop a bookcase in Bryan Lawlor’s home, out of reach of the children. The uniform their father wears still displays the four stripes of a commercial airline captain, but the hat stays home. The rules forbid that extra display of authority, now that Mr. Lawlor has been downgraded to first officer.

CNN: A Rare Case of Homegrown Medicine
Dr. Mitch Miller drove through town on a recent sunny afternoon — a journey that took all of five minutes — and stopped his pickup near a vacant lot. A new home was being built there, a mile from the hospital where he works.

CNN: Clinton says Russia yet to back Iran sanctions
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed Tuesday that Washington and Moscow are working together to ensure Iran's nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes, but Russia has stopped short of committing to Iranian sanctions.

CNN: Panama faces probe over alleged torture
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has been asked to investigate whether Panama tortured an Ecuadorian citizen who was being held as an illegal immigrant, an official hemispheric human rights organization said.